@article{HaiderAhmadGrolletal.2021,
  author    = {Haider, Malik Salman and Ahmad, Taufiq and Groll, J{\"u}rgen and Scherf-Clavel, Oliver and Kroiss, Matthias and Luxenhofer, Robert},
  title     = {The Challenging Pharmacokinetics of Mitotane: An Old Drug in Need of New Packaging},
  series = {European Journal of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics},
  volume    = {46},
  journal   = {European Journal of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics},
  number    = {5},
  issn      = {2107-0180},
  doi       = {10.1007/s13318-021-00700-5},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-270476},
  pages     = {575-593},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a malignant tumor originating from the adrenal gland cortex with a heterogeneous but overall dismal prognosis in advanced stages. For more than 50 years, mitotane has remained a cornerstone for the treatment of ACC as adjuvant and palliative therapy. It has a very poor aqueous solubility of 0.1 mg/l and high partition coefficient in octanol/water (log P) value of 6. The commercially available dosage form is 500 mg tablets (Lysodren®). Even at doses up to 6 g/day (12 tablets in divided doses) for several months, > 50\% patients do not achieve therapeutic plasma concentration > 14 mg/l due to poor water solubility, large volume of distribution and inter/intra-individual variability in bioavailability. This article aims to give a concise update of the clinical challenges associated with the administration of high-dose mitotane oral therapy which encompass the issues of poor bioavailability, difficult-to-predict pharmacokinetics and associated adverse events. Moreover, we present recent efforts to improve mitotane formulations. Their success has been limited, and we therefore propose an injectable mitotane formulation instead of oral administration, which could bypass many of the main issues associated with high-dose oral mitotane therapy. A parenteral administration of mitotane could not only help to alleviate the adverse effects but also circumvent the variable oral absorption, give better control over therapeutic plasma mitotane concentration and potentially shorten the time to achieve therapeutic drug plasma concentrations considerably. Mitotane as tablet form is currently the standard treatment for adrenocortical carcinoma. It has been used for 5 decades but suffers from highly variable responses in patients, subsequent adverse effects and overall lower response rate. This can be fundamentally linked to the exceedingly poor water solubility of mitotane itself. In terms of enhancing water solubility, a few research groups have attempted to develop better formulations of mitotane to overcome the issues associated with tablet dosage form. However, the success rate was limited, and these formulations did not make it into the clinics. In this article, we have comprehensively reviewed the properties of these formulations and discuss the reasons for their limited utility. Furthermore, we discuss a recently developed mitotane nanoformulation that led us to propose a novel approach to mitotane therapy, where intravenous delivery supplements the standard oral administration. With this article, we combine the current state of knowledge as a single piece of information about the various problems associated with the use of mitotane tablets, and herein we postulate the development of a new injectable mitotane formulation, which can potentially circumvent the major problems associated to mitotane's poor water solubility.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Brede2001,
  author    = {Brede, Marc},
  title     = {Kardiovaskul{\"a}re Ph{\"a}notypisierung von Angiotensin II AT2-Rezeptor- und adrenergen Rezeptor-"Knockout"-M{\"a}usen},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-1179726},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2001},
  abstract  = {Die Deletion des AT2-Rezeptors (AT2-KO) f{\"u}hrt zu erh{\"o}hter Blutdruckempfindlichkeit und vaskul{\"a}rer Hypertrophie durch Aktivit{\"a}tszunahhme der P70S6-Kinase. Die Vasodilatation von Blutgef{\"a}ßen wird maßgeblich durch beta1-adrenerge Rezeptoren vermittelt. Die Deletion von alpha2-adrenergen Rezeptoren (alpha2-KO) f{\"u}hrt zur Entwicklung einer Herzinsuffizienz nach Aortenstenose. Der Mortalit{\"a}tanstieg ist mit erh{\"o}hten Plasmanoradrenalin-Spiegeln (a2A-KO), bzw. Plasmaadrenalin-Spiegeln (a2C-KO) assoziiert.},
  language  = {de}
}
@phdthesis{Weigand2021,
  author    = {Weigand, Isabel},
  title     = {Consequences of Protein Kinase A mutations in adrenocortical cells and tumours},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-16064},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-160646},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {Adrenal Cushing's Syndrome (CS) is a rare but life-threatening disease and therefore it is of great importance to understand the pathogenesis leading to adrenal CS. It is well accepted that Protein Kinase A (PKA) signalling mediates steroid secretion in adrenocortical cells. PKA is an inactive heterotetramer, consisting of two catalytic and two regulatory subunits. Upon cAMP binding to the regulatory subunits, the catalytic subunits are released and are able to phosphorylate their target proteins. Recently, activating somatic mutations affecting the catalytic subunit a of PKA have been identified in a sub-population of cortisol-producing adenomas (CPAs) associated with overt CS. Interestingly, the PKA regulatory subunit IIb has long been known to have significantly lower protein levels in a sub-group of CPAs compared to other adrenocortical tumours. Yet, it is unknown, why these CPAs lack the regulatory subunit IIb, neither are any functional consequences nor are the underlying regulation mechanisms leading to reduced RIIb levels known. The results obtained in this thesis show a clear connection between Ca mutations and reduced RIIb protein levels in CPAs but not in other adrenocortical tumours. Furthermore, a specific pattern of PKA subunit expression in the different zones of the normal adrenal gland is demonstrated. In addition, a Ca L206R mutation-mediated degradation of RIIb was observed in adrenocortical cells in vitro. RIIb degradation was found to be mediated by caspases and by performing mutagenesis experiments of the regulatory subunits IIb and Ia, S114 phosphorylation of RIIb was identified to make RIIb susceptible for degradation. LC-MS/MS revealed RIIb interaction partners to differ in the presence of either Ca WT and Ca L206R. These newly identified interaction partners are possibly involved in targeting RIIb to subcellular compartments or bringing it into spatial proximity of degrading enzymes. Furthermore, reducing RIIb protein levels in an in vitro system were shown to correlate with increased cortisol secretion also in the absence of PRKACA mutations. The inhibiting role of RIIb in cortisol secretion demonstrates a new function of this regulatory PKA subunit, improving the understanding of the complex regulation of PKA as key regulator in many cells.},
  subject      = {Cushing-Syndrom},
  language  = {en}
}